This week, I worked with my team, our professor, and our TA to narrow down the scope of our project and to clarify some design choices for our product. Having decided to incorporate more sensors into our trash bin in order to better classify items of waste, I did some research on what types of additional sensors would be best for identifying various materials. Researched sensors (such as inductive and capacitive sensors) and their functionality were added to a shared Google Doc with the rest of my team. I also helped my team clarify and modify our target audience (CMU campus trash bin), purpose (increase recycling rate and decrease contamination rate), and functionality (automatically separates recyclables from trash one item at a time). Another accomplishment this week was making significant headway on the Project Proposal Slides, which contain the most up-to-date specifics on the project. I have attached the Google Doc that my team and I have been brainstorming on here: Proposal Draft.
I feel that our progress is now on schedule. I was a little worried that we were behind in the middle of the week as my team had to meet with our professor and TA in order to straighten some project ideas out. Specifically, we narrowed down the types of recyclables that we would be classifying to 3 main categories and we decided to add more sensors than just a camera to our trash bin. I believe that we were able to resolve these issues quickly and that we are on track to finish up our Project Proposal Slides by the end of the week.
In the next week, I am really focused on making sure that my team’s Project Proposal slides are complete and submitted by the end of the weekend. I then plan to help my team prepare for our proposal presentations which are taking place next week. I want to ensure that we have a clear and complete presentation that has been thoroughly thought out. I am looking forward to sharing our project idea with everyone.